By holding LB and hitting one of your strikes during a grapple, you can execute powerful moves from a swinging neckbreaker to a devastating piledriver or even set up your opponent for a torture rack backbreaker submission. Hold LB and hit a strike button when prone and you’ll deliver anything from a punishing clothesline to a solid boot to the face. And TNA wouldn’t be anything without its X-division (think high-flyers) superstars. Hold LB and hit any of the face buttons towards any corner, and your wrestler will springboard off the turnbuckles and connect with a moonsault or high kick to the face.

Impact excels where SmackDown! feels stale and that’s mostly in the character animations. In utilizing a modified Unreal Engine, Midway is pushing the limits of muscleman-rendering technology. Add to that the fact that many of TNA’s wrestlers worked the actual mo-cap sessions and you have a real labor of love on hand. The engine’s graphical prowess isn’t the only impressive feat. Wrestlers run in 360 degrees (something that took THQ years to accomplish) and when you stop, your wrestler pivots his foot, rather then returning to a prone standing position. Also, when dishing out attacks, they stumble into the corner weakened and tired, as if the ropes were the only thing keeping them upright.